Apple Sues Amazon.com over ‘App Store’ Trademark Infringement

Apple has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Amazon on March 18th for improperly using Apple’s “App Store” trademark for their flagship mobile software developer program.

Amazon.com began using the App Store designation around the beginning of this year, according to the lawsuit. Apple claimed that Amazon has been advertising on its website a program called Angry Birds Rio that will be offered soon. Angry Birds is the name of a popular program in Apple’s App Store.

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple said “We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers”. But, Mary Osako, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com, was not available for comment.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier approved Apple’s application for registering App Store as a trademark which was later opposed by Microsoft and the matter is still lying with the trademark appeal board.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Amazon.com Inc. , 11-1327, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. As always, we will bring you latest updates on Apple, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Just follow us on Twitter and become a Facebook fan.